Palm Beach Ballot Processing Hidden From Election Observers For Hours

An election observer working in Palm Beach reports that workers recreated damaged ballots far away from sight for hours until the Supervisor of Elections forced them to relocate.

Damaged ballots in Palm Beach were reprinted and refilled far away from the view of overnight election observers on Saturday night, until the county’s Supervisor of Elections forced the ballot refilling to be done in a visible area.

One election observer was told these ballots had been damaged and were unable to be processed. In order for these votes to be counted, more ballots would need to be printed, and workers would need to manually transfer the each ballot’s votes to the new ballot so they could be fed into a machine.

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The immediate area is cordoned off, then separated by several tables, and then a row of machines. Several workers appear to be standing and sitting in the back of the location, though what they are doing is unclear.

Zooming in on the photo, the row of unused machines seem to create a second divider between the workers and the observers, further obstructing their actions from the view of election observers and lawyers.

According to the explanation, the copiers in the back were used to print the ballots, then those individuals standing near them would run the freshly printed ballots to the individuals who appear to be sitting, who would then fill out the ballots according to the voter’s wishes, and they would be counted.

The observer immediately voiced his concerns to the lawyers representing the campaign of Florida Governor Rick Scott, who has watched the margin of victory for his Senate campaign dwindle as these votes are counted at a snail’s pace and more votes seem to be found every day.

The observer told Big League Politics that lawyers described the events as “very distressing” at the time.

This process was done from this distance from approximately midnight until around 7 a.m., when the Supervisor of Elections required them to move their equipment and work area closer to the election observers.